Frankel,_Zecharias

Frankel, Zecharias (1801-1875), Jewish theologian, one of the founders of the Breslau school of “historical Judaism.” This school attempts to harmonize critical treatment of the documents of religion with fidelity to traditional beliefs and observances. For a time at least, the compromise succeeded in staying the disintegrating effects of the liberal movement in Judaism. Frankel was the author of several valuable works, among them Septuagint Studies, an Introduction to the Mishnah (1859), and a similar work on the Palestinian Talmud (1870). He also edited the Monatsschrift, devoted to Jewish learning on modern lines. But his chief claim to fame rests on his headship of the Breslau Seminary. This was founded in 1854 for the training of rabbis who should combine their rabbinic studies with secular courses at the university. The whole character of the rabbinate has been modified under the influence of this, the first seminary of the kind.

(I. A.)

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